Games

Age Of Mythology Retold: Best Naval Units

Published

1 month ago

November 27, 2024

Christoph Rediske

age of mythology retold best naval units

Key Takeaways

New naval combat in Age Of Mythology Retold requires players to strategically choose the right units for dominance.
The Servant is a crucial unit in a naval fleet due to its healing abilities, giving Atlantean players an advantage.
The War Turtle in Age Of Mythology Retold is a destructive force on water, essential for Egyptian players to secure victories.

The hit strategy remake Age Of Mythology Retold has been a major re-invigoration for fans of the RTS spin off from the Age Of Empires series. Although some elements have changed from the original, fans are still finding themselves relatively familiar with the remake pretty quickly in most aspects.

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However, one major shift is that naval combat has changed greatly. With more ships able to transport units, some more readily available and myth units being more common than ever, it can be difficult to get to grips with the new forms of naval combat. Players will need to quickly choose which naval units to focus on if they want dominance on the seas of Age Of Mythology Retold.

10 Fishing Ships

Important Even Without Fighting

Population Cost: 1
Resource Cost: 50 Wood

Available to every civilization, Fishing Ships cannot attack and are very weak to attacks from other ships, but they are worth defending. These units can be tasked to gather resources from fish that have no limit and are therefore incredibly important to get to and control as early as possible.

Fishing spots and ships are the biggest thing to protect by amassing a large fleet in Age Of Mythology Retold. Food is a valuable resource and fishing is the most efficient and everlasting way to gather it. With a few fully upgraded fishing ships, players can achieve more damage than the rest of their naval units will ever do.

9 Pentekonter / Ramming Galley / Dreki / Fire Ship

Good For Close Combat Battles

Age Of Mythology Retold Various Hammer Ships

Population Cost: 2
Resource Cost: 100 Wood, 50 Gold

The different civilizations may name them different things, but Age Of Mythology Retold features several standard types of ships that are the same no matter who the player controls. A hammer ship is hugely useful when facing off against an enemy fleet. They cannot stand toe-to-toe with most myth units, but several of these ships will take down arrow ships or even siege ships if they can get close without alerting the enemy.

Hammer ships are best not sent out alone. They can defend docks reasonably well but run into trouble without back-up from ranged naval units. This works in the same way infantry units in Age of Mythology Retold should have archers and cavalry. The best naval force is one that is a blend of different attacking types.

8 Servant

A Healer & The Best Supporting Naval Unit

Population Cost: 2
Resource Cost: 125 Gold, 12 Favor

The weakest naval myth unit in Age Of Mythology Retold, the Servant, is an Atlantean creature available from the Classical Age. Although the original version of the game required players to worship a specific minor God to unlock naval myth units, this isn’t the case in Retold, making the Servant unit more readily available.

Age Of Mythology Retold Best Atlantean Units

Age Of Mythology Retold: Best Units For Atlantean Civilizations

Age of Mythology Retold includes a vast number of units that can be trained, but which ones from the Atlanteans are best to focus on?

Although the Servant has weak attack, it is an incredibly useful unit to include in a large fleet, because it heals naval units with great speed. There is almost nothing else, at least naval-based, that heals naval units, and this gives the Servant a massive advantage over Atlantean players in water-based battles.

7 Triremes / Kebenits / Longboats / Biremes

The Standard Early-Game Naval Attacker

Age Of Mythology Retold Various Archer Ships

Population Cost: 3
Resource Cost: 100 Wood, 50 Gold

Another standardized unit across the civilizations in Age Of Mythology Retold is the archer ship. Available from the Classical Age, the cheapness and wide availability of these ships usually makes them very common across naval battles earlier in the game. Archer ships are the perfect all-round naval unit: they can attack, they have solid armor, they can transport a few units and they are speedy.

With this perfect balance, archer ships will never be known as the best naval unit in the game, but players should include a number of them even in late-game fleets, if only because they can handle hammer ships better than siege ships can, due to their “close-combat ship” buff.

6 Scylla

The Many-Headed Terror Of The Seas

Population Cost: 4
Resource Cost: 200 Gold, 20 Favor

Although many players will be familiar with the Hydra from Greek Mythology and many different films and TV shows, less will be familiar with its water-based cousin. The Scylla is relatively inexpensive for a powerful myth unit and is available to Greek civilization players from the Heroic Age. This creature gains heads the more it fights enemies, meaning it becomes more dangerous the longer it lives.

Players who are smart and find ways to heal their Scylla units will create utter destruction. Good against human soldiers but ideal for causing chaos among enemy fleets, the Scylla may not be the best naval myth unit, but it is a dangerous one and it becomes available earlier than many of the more impressive naval monsters that players can unlock at the Mythic Age.

5 Leviathan

Transport & Violence All In One Creature

Population Cost: 3
Resource Cost: 200 Gold, 15 Favor

There aren’t many ways to sneakily transport an army of land-based units across water. Transport ships are fast, but incredibly vulnerable and will likely be targeted first by enemy defensive ships. A leviathan, however, can be used to transport soldiers while also being a dangerous creature with a lot of hit points. A committed charge by a leviathan will land soldiers in enemy territory.

The leviathan can be used separately from transport at all, since it also has an attacking bonus against enemy ships. This means that it is a great all-around force which should be included in any player controlling the Egyptian civilization in Age Of Mythology Retold. Not only this, the Leviathan is available from the Heroic Age, making it possibly the best mid-game naval unit of all.

4 Juggernaut / War Barge / Dragon Ship / Siege Bireme

Siege Ships Necessary For Major Offensives

Age Of Mythology Retold Various Siege Ships

Population Cost: 3
Resource Cost: 100 Wood, 50 Gold

The final and best of the standardized ship units in Age Of Mythology Retold is the siege ship type. These units are available from the Classical Age and are hugely important to players looking to deal big damage to enemies, since they have a bonus against archer ships and against enemy buildings.

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With a couple of siege ships breaking through enemy lines, players can not just take down any enemy docks, they can wreak absolute havoc against anything the enemy was bold enough to build near the coast. Siege ships are an integral part of any fleet, since not many naval units are especially good against buildings.

3 The Argo

The Mythical Naval Hero

Population Cost: 4
Resource Cost: 200 Wood, 4 Favor

A complete anomaly in Age Of Mythology Retold, The Argo is the only ship or naval unit of any kind which is also a hero unit. Heroes are invaluable in this game, mostly because of their huge bonus against myth units. However, this doesn’t normally help against the wealth of dangerous creatures available on the water, as heroes can’t attack them.

This is what makes The Argo all the more invaluable. Available after a specific technology is researched in the Heroic Age to Greek civilization players, The Argo will deal huge damage to myth units and give players one of the biggest advantages possible on the water since myth units are normally the most dangerous beings out on the open water.

2 Kraken

The Tentacled Monstrosity Can Insta-Kill Ships

Population Cost: 4
Resource Cost: 300 Food, 20 Favor

The devastation which most myth units cause on the water against ships is nothing compared to the Kraken. This unit, available to Norse civilization players from the Heroic Age, has a special ability that lets it instantly tackle and destroy an enemy ship. Not only this, but that ability recharges frequently, allowing a couple of Kraken units to go through an entire enemy fleet in a short amount of time.

The Kraken is incredible. It can throw human soldiers if they come close to it, and it can down enemy ships with ease. This makes it an ideal defensive unit against small raids and an absolute necessity in larger naval forces, which will be very difficult for non-Norse players to find a counter for, almost making it the most dangerous naval unit in the game.

1 War Turtle

The Ultimate Tool For Water-Based Destruction

Population Cost: 4
Resource Cost: 225 Food, 15 Favor

The most dangerous and destructive force on the water in Age Of Mythology Retold is definitely the War Turtle. A special ability that throws nearby ships and stuns them for several seconds allows a complete turning of the tide in a battle between fleets, and the huge attack it normally hits with is devastating against any type of ship.

War Turtles are exclusive to the Egyptian Civilization from the Mythic Age for followers of Osiris and are vital to Egyptian players winning on the water. War Turtles have hardly any counters, and they are surprisingly cheap, making a herd of them achievable for a huge showdown between fleets, and a surefire victory.

Systems

Released: September 4, 2024
Developer(s): World’s Edge , Forgotten Empires , Capture Age , Tantalus Media , Virtuos
Publisher(s): Xbox Game Studios
Multiplayer: Online Multiplayer
Engine: BANG! Engine
ESRB: T For Teen Due To Violence
How Long To Beat: 16 Hours
Steam Deck Compatibility: Unknown
X|S Optimized: Yes
File Size Xbox Series: 23 GB (September 2024)
OpenCritic Rating: Strong